I bought a used point and shoot recently so that I could be more mindful to not only take pictures more often but also to take better quality pictures.
I noticed that since everyone has a smartphone, people have been less likely to take photos and videos and people get annoyed when they are photographed/recorded. I think part of that is because those photos and videos get uploaded to social media where everyone can see/judge.
I wanted to try to take more photos of family events though since it was always fun to look through old photos of family members. I grew up in the 90s and 00s when it was really common to have photos taken at every event. Though I I haven’t uploaded any of my photos yet, I’ve definitely taken more pictures than I ever had prior to having a camera. (I plan to buy a NAS hard drive during black Friday so I can store my photos privately.)
It sucks that good point and shoots are basically discontinued. I paid almost double the msrp for my camera and it was used and made in 2018. If you’re able to find some good point and shoots for a good price, I would highly recommend you trying it out.
You can also buy (excellent) point & shoot film cameras, btw. or a rangefinder camera for a decent price (non-Leica branded, because Leica is expensive no matter what ;)
I hope you wont mind me reminding this: film is not simpler. It’s as much work if not more as any other type of manual photography, digital or not. The difference, beside the lack of immediacy, being that you control the output and not some computer code… which means that you must assume the many mistakes that will happen too ;)
I learned photography on a film camera back in the late 70s. And to me B&W film have yet to be rivaled by anything digital. The real issue with film is that, depending where you live, it can be a pain to get it properly processed (of the few remaining places around here, too many simply can’t be bothered to do it right). One could certainly process B&W at home but it would still be a pain to learn to do it properly. And don’t even think about colors (a lot more complex and expensive) and then there would be the demanding task of scanning each negative or each print and then digitally clean it.
I know myself enough to know that I will definitely be too lazy to develop film. Heck, I am too lazy sometimes to even back up my photos. Though it would be kind of fun to enjoy film cameras, realistically I will likely never see those photos at all.mm